Coco Vandeweghe wins opener in Carlsbad

CoCo Vandeweghe loves to stand at the net in practice and try to hit her new coach, Tom Gullikson.

“We do a lot of stuff at the net,” Vandeweghe said, “and mostly it’s my trying to peg him. I get him, but not as much as I’d like.”

That Gullikson has taken Vandeweghe as a full-time project says a lot about the potential of the 18-year-old who recently moved to Newport Beach from San Diego.

Gullikson was a long-time coach for Pete Sampras, led the U.S. men’s team to a Davis Cup title in Russia and coached Jennifer Capriati when she was a No. 1 contender.

Vandeweghe, who is 6 feet 1 (and done growing if Gullikson has his way), advanced to the second round of the Mercury Insurance Open on Tuesday with a 6-0, 3-0, ret., win over Argentine veteran Gisela Dulko.

Dulko was never at her best in the match and quit because of an ankle injury, but any WTA Tour-level win is a big accomplishment for Vandeweghe. The teenager was tabbed as the next big thing in U.S. women’s tennis as early as 2007, when she received a wild-card entry into the main draw at this tournament.

“It seems like she’s been around a long time,” said Vera Zvonareva, the 2010 Wimbledon finalist who is the third-seeded player here. Vandeweghe will play Zvonareva in the second round, and Gullikson said that will give a good indication of how much progress Vandeweghe is making.

Vandeweghe has a family full of athletes. Her grandfather, Ernie Vandeweghe, played professional basketball for the New York Knicks, her uncle Kiki Vandeweghe was an NBA All-Star after his UCLA college career, and her mother, Tauna Vandeweghe, was an Olympic swimmer and a USC volleyball player.

While top-ranked Serena Williams and third-ranked Venus Williams make it seem as if the United States is blessed with a strong crop of players, the next highest-ranked American is Melanie Oudin at No. 45 — and she has been moving down the ladder, not up, since her run to the U.S. Open quarterfinals last summer.

Long Beach’s Vania King is No. 80, but mostly the top 100 is bereft of U.S. players. Since Venus is 30 and Serena will turn 29 in September it is natural that there is constant attention on the “who’s next” factor.

Gullikson, who is a United States Tennis Assn. coach, said he held a camp last week at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

In attendance with Vandeweghe were 17-year-old Sloane Stephens of Long Beach, 20-year-old Alison Riske of Hilton Head Island, S.C., 20-year-old Madison Brengle of Dover, Del., 18-year-old Julia Boserup of Newport Beach and 17-year-old Nicole Gibbs of Manhattan Beach. It is a group, Gullikson said, that he expects to produce a top-10 player or two.

Vandeweghe and Stephens came from the camp to the qualifying tournament here and Vandeweghe beat Stephens for a main draw spot in a tough three-set match.

“It was great tennis and I think it showed a lot about both girls,” Gullikson said.

Zvonareva moved into the second-round matchup with Vandeweghe with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 win over Dominika Cibulkova. It was Zvonareva’s first match since her 6-3, 6-2 loss to Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final; Zvonareva said she didn’t expect to play her best hard-court tennis right away, and she didn’t. “I was uneven,” she said.

In a mild upset, former U.S. Open and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova beat eighth-seeded Yanina Wickmayer, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.

Kuznetsova’s ranking is down to 21st in the world, a place where she is uncomfortable. “I should be top 10,” Kuznetsova said. “I feel I will get back there.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com